Many different types of applications are able to interact with the Internet and acquire data or other information from the Internet. For example, some applications can allow a user to download certain content, such as web pages, files and the like. With the ability to interact with the Internet come various risks that are associated with such interaction.
For example, through various interactions that can take place between an application and the Internet, so called malware or spyware can get downloaded on the user's system and can adversely impact the system's performance and, perhaps more importantly, can impermissibly install malicious software. For example, buffer overruns and other security holes can allow malware to maliciously make its way onto a user's system.
With regard to impacting the system's performance, consider the following. In some instances, malware may attempt to, or may actually change security settings associated with a particular application or the user's system in general, thus rendering it more likely for malicious tampering to take place.
Against the backdrop of these and other security concerns remains the ever-present desire, on the part of those who develop software, to provide the user with a safe and rich experience.